The Anne Arundel County auditor has raised concerns about an administration official sitting in on discussions with employees that are part of an audit of county credit cards.

In an email to County Council members, Auditor Jodee Dickinson said having procurement card administrator Jennifer Helmecki involved in meetings with employees could undermine the information gathered. Her office is auditing the program to determine if employees are using “procurement cards” within county policy.

A decision by Central Services Officer Christine Romans to have Helmecki present might make employees be less likely to share information during the interviews that could be harmful to the coordinator or their employer, Dickinson said. It could allow County Executive Steve Schuh’s administration “to coach the department staff as their responses ahead of time,” she said.

In her email, Dickinson said previous interviews linked to audits of the cards didn’t include the administrator. Her office launched the audit because county reliance on procurement cards has increased. The most recent audit of the cards was completed and released in February 2013.

“I have explained … that when conducting field work like this, auditing standards require that we conduct our work in ways that will get the most accurate, reliable, and unbiased audit evidence,” Dickinson wrote council members. “(Christine Romans) has ignored my arguments and is sending Ms. Helmecki into these meetings anyway.”

Helmecki’s involvement in the meetings is to ensure misinformation isn’t given to the auditor, said Owen McEvoy, a spokesman for Schuh.

“From an administrative perspective, we support audits,” McEvoy said. “We aren’t perfect. Frankly, we have had experiences in the past when the person wasn’t in the room and misinformation as given to the auditor.”

The Schuh administration has a history of butting heads with the auditor’s office, which reports to the County Council.

Schuh accused former Auditor Teresa Sutherland of going beyond her assigned role. One particular issue was the auditor’s decision to review the reprinting of tax fliers after deleting a message by then council Chairman Jerry Walker.

Sutherland at the time said she was just doing her job to maintain checks and balances on the executive branch. She left her position in February after 22 years. Sutherland told The Capital her decision had nothing to do with the county executive.

Helmecki’s involvement in the meeting means Dickinson will write what is called a scope qualification when the audit is released. This explains the context behind how the information was gathered.

There haven’t been any specific issues that are cause for alarm, but it warrants the notice, Dickinson said.

“It’s a general concern,” Dickinson said. “It’s only been a couple of meetings so far. We have to see where it goes.”

In an email sent to The Capital, council Chairman John Grasso called on the Schuh administration to be more transparent. The letter was sent from Grasso’s campaign for county executive.

When asked why he chose to send the letter from the campaign and not his county council email, Grasso said he “didn’t really think about it.” He said his decision wasn’t politically motivated.

But Grasso said Schuh’s office was meddling in the auditor’s affairs.

“You know what it reminds me of? When people take the Fifth Amendment,” Grasso said. “If you take the Fifth, in my personal belief, you are guilty. If you weren’t guilty you wouldn’t be taking the Fifth. There should be no head-butting whatsoever if there is nothing to hide.”

McEvoy said the Schuh administration values transparency and wants Helmecki in the meetings to ensure it.

“We share John Grasso’s desire for transparency,” McEvoy said. “We are being open and honest to the auditor. If there are individuals in government not applying our policies we want to fix that.”